Denial
by AirJordan8
Summary: Kate steals a copy of Cosmopolitan and finds an interesting quiz inside. Jate. One-shot.


_I wrote this for a friend's birthday. She was cool enough to be born on January 1st. Have an awesome sweet 16, Lex!_

_DISCLAIMER: If I owned Lost, I would be on a beach somewhere sipping lemonade with Matthew Fox. There would also be far more Jate scenes._

It's Kate's lucky day. A rare smile crosses her face as she leans back in the airplane chair outside her tent and turns her eyes down to her new prize: a stolen Cosmopolitan magazine, straight from Sawyer's stash. After giving the front cover a quick look over, one headlight catches her eye. _Are you in love with him? _While inwardly cursing herself for taking one of these pointless magazine quizzes anyways, she flips to page 23 and starts reading, chewing on the tip of her pen.

**1. You find yourself staring at him constantly. **Okay. This one she'll admit to. But, then again, this quiz was made for normal people, back in the real world. She's stranded on a deserted island. What else is there to do around here? And that damn red tank top he is wearing today makes this one unfair.

**2. All you think about is him. **Again with the deserted island thing. If there was more to do, she wouldn't have to think about Jack all the time. I mean, if they ever get rescued, she will probably spend her time thinking about other things like…well, she'll think about other things. She knows it.

**3. Everything reminds you of him. **Not _everything_. Just a very few, select things. Like guava seeds, black thread, slings, red tank tops, tattoos, the number 5, nets, jungles, caves, beaches, islands…damn it.

**4. When you walk into a room full of people he's the first person you look for. **Okay, they don't have rooms. But there is that little fact that, whenever he goes on any kind of trek, she either goes with him, or worries about him constantly before watching carefully for him when the group returns. But that's only because he's so careless when it comes to his own health and because it's too easy to get hurt on this island. Definitely only because of the island.

**5. Every time your phone rings you hope it's going to be him. **No phones either. But she can't deny that, anytime she hears foot steps outside her tent, she holds her breath and hopes that he'll peek his head in and give her that cute little smile.

**6. If you know where he is you go there even if it's miles out of your way. **How long is the walk to the caves? She used to visit him there, but she stopped. Then again, he stopped living there. But it's not_ that_ far. And once again, what else is there to do around here? It's not exactly Disneyland.

**7. You challenge him to things that you know you're good at just to see if it impresses him. **Well, she wasn't absolutely _sure _that she was still that good at golf. It had been a pretty long time. Except for the time she'd golfed the day Hurley made the course. And she was still good then. Well, she could have lost her touch in that week or so between the first Island Open and the day she golfed with Jack. She didn't know.

**8. All you seem to talk about is him. **This one she blames on Claire and Sun. Especially Claire. She's the one who always brings up Jack in their conversations, probably just to see if Kate will blush. Then why was she talking to Charlie about Jack the other day? Well, he is the leader after all. People back in the United States talk about George Bush, and they're definitely not in love with him, it's just because he's the leader. Yeah, everyone talks about Jack just as much as she does because he's the leader.

**9. When you see him with other girls, it kills you. **Ugh. Juliet. But that wasn't because of him; it was because Juliet was an Other. Yeah, that's why Kate hated her for so long. And Ana Lucia…well some people, Kate just doesn't like. That had nothing to do with Jack.

**10. When he looks at you, your heart skips a beat. **This one gets blamed on Jack himself. What girl's heart doesn't jump a little when he shows off that shy smile? Those beautiful, chocolate eyes that just scream "you know you were already thinking about me". And his "I didn't do it for him" or "I'm not"? It's his own fault.

**11. You're always so out of it because your thinking of him. **Claire, and her so-called constant snapping of her fingers to get Kate's attention, would probably fall on the floor laughing if Kate didn't own up to this one.

**12. All the time you were reading this there was one person on your mind. **Oh c'mon that's a stupid one. Of course she was only thinking about Jack, you're supposed to think of only one person or it won't work. If you're going to think of a different person for every reason, then what's the point of taking it? And this is just a stupid quiz from some magazine. How is that supposed to tell her if she's in love or not? Yeah, this quiz is pointless anyways.

"What cha readin', Freckles?" Sawyer's southern drawl snaps her out of her frustrated attempt to explain her answers to herself.

"Nothing," she responds too quickly, snapping the magazine closed.

"Sure doesn't look like nothin' to me. I wouldn't have taken you for the "magazine love quiz" type." She just scowls up at him. "Well, Freckles, lets see the results!" He reaches down and easily snatches the magazine from Kate.

"Sawyer, give it back," she cries, jumping to her feet in an instant and reaching for the copy of Cosmopolitan. But he holds it just out of her arm's length, like an older brother teasing his little sister. "C'mon, this isn't funny!"

Sawyer flips to page 23, holding it above his head and tilting his neck back to find the little black check marks next to each of the 12 signs. "Well, well, well, it's looks like someone's in love," he teases.

She makes another half-hearted attempt at grabbing the magazine back. "Give it to me, Sawyer!"

He ignores her, turning away from her instead. "Jack!" He screams across camp. Kate's eyes widen in horror as she spots Jack walking down the beach with Sayid, probably discussing something important. They, along with half the camp, turn to look at Kate and Sawyer. He pauses, earning annoyed looks from both Jack and Sayid, who have stopped walking. "Never mind," he calls back. The two men brush it off to just Sawyer being Sawyer and go their separate ways.

He turns back to Kate and tosses the magazine into her hands. Her jungle green eyes filled with rage and aggravation that wasn't all Sawyer's fault to begin with, she promptly raises her hand and slaps him across the face. Sawyer rubs his jaw a little as he raises his head. "You can slap me all ya want," he tells her, pauses, and then continues with a matter-of-fact tone, "but you and I both know he deserves to know the truth."

_Free red tank top worn by Jack if you review :)_


End file.
